YouSaid · the spoken record

Naomi Long

lines on the record: 40
first: 2022-06-17
most recent: 2022-06-17
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I have a strong support network and I have a good sense of humor and I think a lot of the time you just you have to at some stage put yourself in the shoes of the people dishing out the abuse and imagine how sad and empty their lives must be and remind yourself that your life is neither and just move on.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The idea that somebody would bother to send me an email about my hair was just, I was incredulous. But that's not that unusual. We're constantly getting advice about how we look about our weight, about the tone of our voice. It's relentless, the”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of weeks I've been doing a number of things. I have been running my department, I have been leading my party to unparalleled success in an election. I have buried my father-in-law. And I thought nothing mattered less to me than my hair. But thank you for reminding me that something does your opinion of it.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I get a lot of abuse, social media particularly, but not exclusively. I mean, just, you know, I had an email recently. I was on RTE during the election count, and we just won a lot of seats. I was rushed up onto the podium to speak. It was a difficult election campaign for me. My father-in-law passed away from cancer after quite a long battle. He was buried on Election Day. So it was not an easy election for us. And I gave my interview and got home, opened my email, and some gentlemen, I used the term lightly, had emailed me to tell me that my hair was a mess and that I hadn't seen a stylist in a long time and could do with working on my presentation if I was hoping people would vote for me. So I wrote back to him and told him that I wasn't just hoping people would vote for us they had in significant numbers, more significant than ever before. And I said, look, you know, over the last number.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To change, I don't think we can consider battle fought in one though. There are still real challenges for women in politics.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think it's important for women to see other women in leadership. It doesn't necessarily mean you'll agree with everything they do. I mean, I admire Michelle and Arlene for the leadership that they have shown. I don't agree with much in the way of their politics. But, you know, I understand the importance of young women regardless of their political aspirations, seeing women in leadership. Because I think that it normalizes the idea that women can actually lead. And I grew up at a strange time when we had a female prime minister and Margaret Thatcher, again, not somebody that I would aspire to be like in terms of my politics, but nevertheless, it normalized the concept of women being in leadership. I also worked in what we're always traditionally very male-dominated environments. So I was an engineer, a civil engineer before politics. And so for me, the idea that there are no-go areas for women is just something that is alien to me and something that I'm really keen.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I recognize that every time unionism reacts in this kind of over the top way, it discombobulates nationalists in Northern Ireland who suddenly feel like what's the point of giving this a go when we could have unity instead. And I just think that unionism in some ways has dealt itself a real kind of self-harming blow with Brexit and with their reaction to the protocol that I think is unhelpful. Just want to return.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I don't have an opinion, a strong opinion as to which is the best outcome for Northern Ireland. I really genuinely don't. But I do see, as everyone else does, that every time the government intervenes in ways that are damaged into Northern Ireland or upsetting to the political process here, that it makes the argument for Northern Ireland remaining in the UK more difficult. So if you woke up in the United Ireland.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Will not necessarily because I don't really need to have a view right now because we're not, it's not a pressing question. And as I've said before, I'm a practical, pragmatic politician. Everybody else is going around having an”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think that they are completely misjudging the situation. I said prior to Brexit that I thought Brexit was probably the biggest existential threat Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom would face in terms of its integrity. And I'm not there to advocate for unionism, but I could see the threat that Brexit presented because it was a motivator for Scottish nationalism and it's been a motivator for Irish nationalism. People here valued their European citizenship and valued that European connection and benefited from it and denying people that right was always going to be a disruptor in terms of politics.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is really important though. The evidence is that Northern Ireland's economy, for the first time, is outperforming other regions. So we have economic growth here. The only other part of the UK currently experiencing economic growth is London. That's an almost unique situation for a place whose economy has been so broken. And yet we know that if the protocol goes, we lose that advantage, that competitive advantage.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you have to own those choices, you can't just assume that it's for everyone else to protect you from them. And the consequence of Brexit is trade friction. And the consequence of Brexit for Northern Ireland was the protocol. And the consequence of the protocol is that we need limited checks, but checks nevertheless between GB and Northern Ireland. Now, those are consequences that could have been avoided, but they haven't been. So now we need to look at how do we minimise the impact of that, recognising that for some unionists this is a real issue. But we also need to look at the wider picture. I mean, you mentioned business is not being happy. The vast majority of businesses in Northern Ireland, the Derry Council, the red meat producers, the manufacturing and so on, have all come out and said, we need the protocol. It's essential for us doing business, but also.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's not as straightforward as that. It's about saying, have the courage to admit you got this wrong and put it right. Recognize that yes, unionists are concerned, but it is also a consequence of a policy that unionists pursued. You know, there has to be a point in politics in life in general, where you will make choices and the consequences are not what you hoped.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Legacy of the past. So actually looking at inquiries that have never been completed and trying to bring those to a conclusion, they're about to take action there, which will have an implication for the devolved government. They have no support from any political party, and yet they're pursuing that agenda without consent.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, actually, they can because international relations is not a devolved issue, and the Good Friday Agreement and the requirement for cross-community consent only applies to those issues, which are devolved, matters not to those which aren't. So, for example, Brexit was able to happen even though a majority in Northern Ireland and a majority of nationalists opposed it. Let's look at, for example, a different issue the government are dealing with, the issue of legacy cases in Westminster. And they're bringing forward legacies from this.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Course, there's a way out. I mean, first of all, in terms of how we deal with this, there's always a way out, but it's the same way out there is for Northern Ireland and its difficulties. It's about respect and negotiation and trust. So the government, instead of unilaterally trying to change an international deal, which we all know can't be done, I mean, let's be honest, all of us would acknowledge that if you do a deal with somebody, you can't unilaterally change it and expect them to accept that with no repercussions. They need to go to Europe. They need to engage with Europe. Europe need to engage with them and they need to negotiate their way through and take the rough edges off a protocol, which remember this government signed up to. They need to build trust because they're saying to the European Union just a very basic level, look, trust us. We will look after the single market and protect it for you. Now, let's look at this government and ask yourself the question, would you trust this government to do anything for you? And the truth is most people wouldn't.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's not done already we're going to be talking about the protocol with respect. We are still talking about this now. It's six years on from 2016 and it's not done. So anyone who tells you that this was an often ready dealing good to go well, it's now been shown up for the turkey that it is. And, you know, we need to just be honest with ourselves. This is not done. This is very much still a live issue in Northern Ireland. It has caused a huge amount of political and community tension.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, I think they're being disingenuous because this all stems back to Brexit and no one listened to the majority of people in Northern Ireland over Brexit, not even to the degree where they would temper how hard a Brexit we would end up with. So the people of Scotland and Northern Ireland said no to Brexit. The people of Northern Ireland, the overwhelming numbers in Northern Ireland said that we shouldn't have Brexit. And it was clear that what we needed to do, if you look at our politics, for example, was that we needed some kind of soft landing zone. And we were denied that by the DUP and the Conservatives, who went in.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. And so for me, that runs contrary to the values in the Good Friday Agreement, which was about bringing people together. The reason that so many people in Northern Ireland now feel freed, if you like, to be able to define their politics differently is because there is relative peace, because people feel that there is a secure and politically kind of acknowledged way to pursue their political views. And so we don't have to have constant conflict. But there's also a recognition that there are bigger issues that the Assembly needs to deal with, the practical things of life.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, because if you read the Good Friday Agreement, it talks about things like cross-community consent, and as a cross-community party that draws its membership from every part of society, whether it's unionist, nationalist, neither, both, we bring all those people together in one party. We're discounted in our electoral system. So when it comes to votes in the Assembly that are called cross-community votes, what there actually is parallel consent votes. So you need a majority of unionists and a majority of nationalists. and our votes count for less.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We re gear our society in a way that we can respectfully disagree on the constitutional position, but still work together on the health service, on the state of our communities, on housing, on the cost of living crisis, all those things that actually really impact on so many people.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, in Northern Ireland, this desire that we all have to take aside is pretty strong. And the local terminology is a Lundy, which kind of harks back to the Siege of Derry. So we're going a long way back. And I get that thrown at me occasionally. But, I mean, what I do for my community, because I believe that the opportunities Northern Ireland can have as a peaceful place, as a place where we have more integrated lives, where we can work together instead of pulling apart are so much greater than the opportunities we have with division. And it isn't to dismiss the past. The past matters, and we have to deal with that in a way that has integrity. And I don't excuse what the IRA did. And I certainly don't accept that it was valid. But I do believe very strongly that we have an opportunity as a result of the Good Friday Agreement to move beyond that conflict and start to look at how do we...”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, he had held a seat for 31 years. He narrowly won it at the expense of one of the party's founder leaders, Sir Oliver Napier. And so there was a particular resonance for the party in winning that seat. For me, I suppose we had had a difficult relationship right from the outset with the DUP and East Belfast. I've never personalised it. It was never about bringing down Peter Robinson. It was about winning for Alliance.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was certainly crucial in terms of first of all it challenged my idea that politics was a pointless exercise because that had been my perception I guess growing up in Northern Ireland was that it was just about people bickering on television and I apologise to people who now see me doing that but I didn't see how it delivered for people and when John Alderdeyce actually resolved the problem and did it quickly I suddenly thought, actually you can do politics in a way that will make a difference to people that will actually make their lives a bit easier. And I like that because I'm a problem solver by nature. That's how I approach life.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think there were a couple of things. I think, first of all, choosing a side had never really served my community well. So yes, I came from a unionist background and in many ways people would say, well, surely unionists were in a much more positive position. But I grew up in a terraced house two up to down outside toilet. Very little progress in our community. The whole thing was from politicians that they could rely on getting your support, but they didn't really have to do much in return. And I suppose my first experience was when I was at university I approached my then MP Peter Robinson and I asked for his help with an issue of financial issue and I didn't get any response. And I just thought what is the point of politics if people aren't there to help when you need it?”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it did because I suppose for all of us there was that thing I think that happens to everyone who's in those situations that sort of almost survivors guilt in that as young people we were thinking that the reason they were crossing the border at that time was because they were coming to see us and that left a mark because you kind of feel a responsibility even though obviously it was not our fault what happened but there's that sense of if only they hadn't been coming to see us maybe it wouldn't have happened”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“House, there was a big group of us all performing, and we had had a really good run that week. And the Saturday night performance was a special performance because we were going to be joined by Lady Cecilie Gibson, who was the chief guide in Northern Ireland. Her husband, Lord Justice Gibson, was a senior judge. And they were travelling back from Dublin. And there was an explosion and they were murdered in that explosion. And I remember us being brought. She had come and she'd visited us during rehearsals and she'd shown great interest, and we were excited for her to come and see the final show. And we were told what had happened. And then we went on with the show.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I mean, some of them kind of resonate with you much more directly. I mean, the time I was at Queens, I remember the murders of people in Darkley at Church Hall, and one of the guards in my class at Queens actually was in a church just down the road. And it could have been her congregation just as easily as it was the other. And it was just a kind of moment where you took a step back. My husband's grandfather was a member of the RUC. He was a police officer. He was standing talking to another officer in North Belfast. They said goodnight. They were on patrol. One went left, one went right, and the guy who went left was shot dead. So, you know, there were those moments when things could have been very different for our family. But I remember as a young girl, I was very involved with girl guides and I was in the gang show in the opera.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I went back to school and told my teacher this, and she said to me, Tell your father much better to be in the middle of the road than in the gutter deer. And I thought this was fascinating that this debate was happening. And I told my dad, and he just laughed and said, good for her.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so that would have been scribbled when the teacher. And I remember our teacher when we were in primary school. And she came in and she was cleaning this off the board. And she said, these are bad people. You should not be writing this in the wall, which is quite a brave thing to say given that some of the kids in the class, their parents might have been involved in those organisations, which said these are bad people, should not get involved with this. It will ruin your life. And we were only about eight or nine at the time. the conversation very quickly progressed with people saying, Miss, who do you vote for? Who do you vote for? And she said, the Alliance Party, I didn't really know who the Alliance Party were, but I thought this was fascinating. So I'd gone home and told the story to my mum and dad and my father jokingly said, oh, you should tell Miss Adair that she needs to be careful because if you stand in the middle of the road, you'll get knocked down. Afraid, as I have to say, I've heard many times sit.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I suppose my family were never particularly staunch, which sounds odd when my dad was in the Orange Order, but they were not particularly staunch. My mum wasn't particularly political at all. But at the time, kids, we'd, you know, scribble on the blackboard when the teacher wasn't there and that kind of stuff. And given what was being scribbled on the walls at the time by adults, some of those would be UVF or UDA slogans or whatever.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I mean, I suppose there are still many people in Northern Ireland, particularly, I think, in rural communities where kind of older men will go to the lodge because their fathers, their brothers, their neighbors were all involved. And it's kind of their community and it's how they engage with each other. So my dad was in the lodge. He was actually in both the Orange and the Black Preceptory. So he was quite involved. In fact, his lodge left from our house to go to the 12th when he was master of his lodge. So I was kind of staked in that sort of culture. And it was really only when I went to university at Queens in Belfast that I had my first taste of cross-community education, of integration of meeting people from a completely different background who had different values, different ideals than I had. And it was just a good...”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Public property, it's fairly basic stuff, but she felt strongly about it, and we woke up the next morning with a massive union flag painted on the road outside our house with Remember 1690 across the top. You know, we were getting the message that if you didn't conform, you would conform anyway. In saying that they didn't paint the curbs outside the house. So it was a magician. It was a perfect victory, but we managed to at least assert that we didn't want that to happen. But that's the kind of stuff that would have happened. And it's something that I was conscious of growing up.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, in some cases, if there was a dispute with a family who were paramilitary linked, you know, people's windows would be smashed, their car set on fire, whatever it might be as a kind of warning. Ultimately, people had to leave the community because they were threatened. So those things happened and still do happen. And I wasn't immune to that. But there was a wider sense that because there was a battle going on in Northern Ireland at that time, and it did feel a kind of embattled position that people needed to stick together because there was this sense that if you didn't, that division would be exploited and so on. I suppose that you just grew up with that as a kind of an awareness. It wasn't, I mean, we had as a family, I suppose, an experience where it sounds like a trivial thing, but people were collecting to paint the curbs in our street, red, white and blue for the 12th, and my mum wouldn't pay for that because she didn't believe we should deface.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wasn't so much as a child because I think, like all parents, my parents protected me from much of what was going on. But were we aware that there were paramilitaries in the community? Yes, we were. Were we aware there were certain families that if you crossed them, it would have consequences. Yes, we were, and people still live with that today.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that's one side of East Belfast. The other side is that I grew up in a very close-knit community, a place where people genuinely had a real sense of community where families grew up generation after generation together and there was a sense of pulling together at what was a really difficult time. And it's that that has kind of formed my views rather than the kind of tribal stuff, which actually often impacted really negatively on those communities where you had gatekeepers from paramilitary organisations exercising coercive control over communities rather than giving people that freedom. And that has kind of shaped my politics because I hate bullying. It just can't stand it. And it felt like bullying and it felt oppressive. So I've been for me my politics is about trying to give people in those working class communities the freedom that people now in more affluent communities actually enjoy.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think if you were to believe that Twitter, for example, was a dip sample of the general population, it would drive you to despair. I don't believe that. Twitter is full of very opinionated people shouting over each other. It's like a fight in a bar. It's not a rational conversation with the general population. And so I think maybe too many politicians think it is. And that's quite depressing. I'm not sure that the world is as polarized. I think that there are a lot of loud voices that are amplified by social media. But I think a lot of ordinary people want a quiet life. They want to get on with their job. They want to have a family. They want to be able to access public services. They want a government that's going to do the basics and keep the world taken over that they don't really need to be that engaged. And in Northern Ireland, we've kind of learnt the lesson that that won't happen unless you make it.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, a lot of people will have constitutional aspirations, but it doesn't necessarily define all of their politics. And the problem is that when you sign up to be a unionist or a nationalist, there's often a lot of other baggage that comes with that in terms of your wider political perspectives. And I think that even where people have some aspirations, they don't necessarily want to buy into the whole package. And it's not necessarily either the driving force. I mean, for me, it isn't what motivates me to get up out of bed in the morning and go to work and be involved in politics and do all of that. I wouldn't be doing that if it was just about a United Ireland or remaining in the UK because that's not, for me, fundamental. I do it because I love Northern Ireland. I believe it can be a better place. I believe our society can work together and that we can be more optimistic for the future. And I believe in all of that because I think the Good Friday Agreement has given us the space to do it.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, sometimes it does feel like an uphill struggle, I have to say, but it's mainly when I'm trying to explain it to journalists who maybe don't really understand the dynamics and the changes that have happened in society over the last 24 years of the Good Friday Agreement, or when I'm arguing with trolls on Twitter, which unfortunately I still do, despite all the advice to the contrary, who want to put me into a box and pigeonhole my politics. And at that time, I do feel like it's an uphill struggle. But actually, when I start to talk to the public, when I'm out in my constituency, when I'm out meeting people on the doors, when I'm doing my day job, which is Minister of Justice, it makes sense. So, no, it doesn't feed a strange or weird at all.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. I suppose it has two impacts. I mean, yes, I get weary. When I was first elected to the assembly back in 2003, the Assembly was suspended. And actually, in the time that I've been elected to the Assembly, which is the breaks in between when I was elected to other places, but the Assembly has actually been suspended as much as it has sat. So to say that I'm weary of the Stop Go Nature of Politics is probably putting it quite mildly, but also I'm motivated by it because the whole purpose of me getting involved in politics was that I wanted Northern Ireland to be better. I wanted to heal divisions, bring people together, try to make Northern Ireland work as a society and work from there in terms of people's longer-term aspirations. And I suppose that's the evidence that we still have work to do. So yes, it's wearying, but it's also motivating.”
2022-06-17 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Naomi Long One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source